Blink
by Winslet Chestler
Summary: As he shoved the end of the shikia into my heart I heard the sounds of it dieing, the pain that I felt vanished as the night sky Mercilessly crept in from every corner. however I'm getting ahead of myself here you don't even know who I am or what I am.


**PREFACE**

**The air rushed by my face, cold icy, every cut** **felt like it ****was** threatening to tear me apart. I could no longer feel the legs that held me up, they shook like chattering teeth. I took one step forwards, my legs buckled up under me, forcing me to the ground. The cold frozen grass cradled me in a heartless blanket, touching every part of my body down to my very soul. I started to drift in and out of conciseness, the black haze crept in from every side.

_This is it_ I thought _this is how I die._

As I lay there I heard the sounds of the world, the owl hooting, and the bats fluttering. A branch from a fallen tree snaps right next to my ear. I tried to open my eyes but failed miserably, the weight was too much.

"So this is how the great nameless dies is it?" John said "alone, even without a Nin, but then again he never really was your Nin. Was he?"

It took all my energy to even throw a remark back at him.

"At least I still have mine, Protector," I spat barley over a whisper "What a joke."

"That may be my class, Archer" He hissed taking a step closer to me "but that does not define what I am, you better then any one should know that."

"Me better then anyone huh? Well I guess that's true." I said smiling inwardly at myself, mostly because I did not trust myself enough to even try to smile.

"That's all you have to say?" He demanded, taking another step closer to me.

I stared up at him saw the grin on his face that went from one cheek to another. The darkness of the night seemed to spread out from him, in dark swirling clusters.

_This is what death must look like_ I thought to myself.

Before another thought could cross my mind he slammed the heel of his foot down on my shoulder. Pain shot thought me, without even meaning to I heard myself cry out in pain. An agonizing sound that I would of never of believed would have been my own, but who else could it be we where alone, out here in the middle of nowhere.

He threw his arm back a ball of light flickered genteelly in his palm, which then consumed his arm. When the light dissipated what was left was not an arm, but a sword in some since. It was his arm and yet it was not, part of him and yet not at all.

"What?" he asked noticing my astonishment "did you think you where the only shifter out there?"

At that moment he brought his arm down on me. A light flashed through my line of sight and before I could react he shoved the end of the blade into my heart.

Now if any of you have never experienced what it feels like to have anything stabbed threw your heart let me tell you you're not missing out on anything.

However I'm getting ahead of myself here, you don't even know who I am or what I am.

Part One

The Darkest Decent

 

I sung of chaos and eternal night,

Taught by the heav'nly Muse to venture down

The dark decent, and up to reascend . . .

- John Milton, Paradise lost

**1 **

**Defying Bonds**

**I had just moved to my new home in Gig Harbor a little** **place** that no one has ever heard about. It's near the tip of Washington next to Tacoma. But that does not matter nearly as much as the fact that this was my new home where I would start my new life. Away from all those jerks at my other school, they just didn't understand that a girl having a knife collection is a normal hobby.

My mother was driving us to our new home, the windows where down and the sun scorched us. Ninety-one degrees on our first day here, the water sparkled all around us and the birds chirped.

After an hour or so drive we had passed all sorts of lives the rich, the poor, the extremely poor, this place had them all I even saw one of those bums in the boxes, back in Alaska you would have died if you tried that. Eventually we made it to our new house, in between the poor and rich parts of town.

We where starting to unload all our stuff into our house, which if I do say so myself was pretty cool. It was a big house right on the water, a wide open yard, with close neighbors on both sides but not to close that it felt like you where in a parking lot.

"Why don't you go pick out a room for yourself honey?" My mother suggested "Pick one with a good view."

"Okay mom." I replied back.

I set the boxes I was caring on the door step, with the arrows pointing up because I had no idea what was in them. I walked up the steps and opening one of the two big glass doors waiting for me.

The house looked big from the outside but on the inside it looked even bigger if that was at all possible. The entry way had a wooden floor that stopped at the living room where it changed to carpet. I walked around the downstairs and concluded that it must have been larger then a football field. The kitchen alone looked about the size of our old apartment, which at the time seemed big enough to me, but now I would have thought that it was heraldically small.

When I found no rooms on the first floor I decided to head up to the second floor. The stairs where made out of metal but looked like snow so pure white, they where also just as cold. I followed the stairs as they led me skywards in a spiral that completed one and a half circles.

At the top of the stairs was a long hallway, with doors on both sides and what looked like to be another living room at the end. I turned the handle of the first door and stepped inside, it turned out to be a bathroom but was big enough to hold a king size bed and someone could still have room to walk around comfortably.

I closed the door and went to the next handle, turned it and almost stepped inside but realized that it was a closet and closed the door.

I would have gone to every door and looked inside but I suddenly got this sort of pulling feeling towards the room at the very end of the hallway. I walked up to the door and when I reached it I looked at the handle. It was unlike anything else in this house it was old a rusted over metal that had chips in spots and was falling off.

I grabbed the handle and realized despite its appearance it was surprisingly warm, almost hot. I would have let go but the warmth of it was soothing, so I turned the handle and walked inside.

The room was wide open almost as big as the kitchen but if you have been paying attention that did not mean that it was small, in fact there was nothing small about it. The wall parallel to the door was a window, not a wall and window I mean a full length window from one wall to the next.

_I'm going to need some curtains_ I thought.

The roof of my room slanted down it was taller at the door and shorter at the window wall. I noticed that the window wall also contained a glass sliding door that led out to a patio.

I walked up to the new door and opened it walking onto my new patio, yes you heard me right my new patio. The view from it was just as spectacular as the house. Below me was our yard with a pool in the shape of what looked to be a crescent moon surrounded by ten or eleven deformed stars. Beyond that was the harbor, there was boats hooked up to docks, people swimming, and walking.

_Its perfect _I thought.

I turned around and slid open the door stepping inside and walked across my room and out the other door. I practically ran down the hall and down the stairs taking two or more steps at a time, till I hit the bottom floor and sprinted smashing into the door on my way out.

Now if you're wondering why I was so excited over my new room that is because I've never had my own room. In our old apartment my mother and I shared a room because the only other rooms where the bathroom, kitchen, and entry way.

"Hey mom I found the roo -," I started to say but stopped when I noticed that my mother was not alone.

"Oh! Hey hunny these are our neighbors Mr. and Mrs. Winchester, and their son Zero." My mother said pointed to each one as she introduced them "and this is my daughter Max."

"Hello Max its nice to meet you" Mrs. Winchester said

Smiling I said "It's nice to meet you to"

Mrs. Winchester was a tall very skinny woman that looked like something out of an old fashion movie. She had a big old hat the covered her whole body from head to foot in a shadow, she also wore a dark purple dress with matching purse and shoes.

Mr. Winchester was not much different then his wife, he himself wore a tux that looked like it was taken out of the same old movie. The only thing that did not fit with him was that his flawless face was tainted with a bright pink scar leading from the middle of his hairline to the bottom of his left cheek.

_Did they dress up just to come out and meet us? _I wondered even though it was highly unlikely.

The next to introduce himself was Zero he walked up to me saying "Hey it's nice to have someone else my age in this neighbor hood."

Zero was a kind boy I guessed with light brown hair that curled up a little at each end. He was tall even compared to me and I'm quite tall for my age. Unlike his parents who looked like they had dressed up to meet us it looked like he wore what he would ware to school or to the movies with any old friends. His white short sleeve shirt had tears and paint stains on it his pants had holes at the knees and were also covered in paint.

I noticed that he was waiting for a reply so I quickly said "Ya it's cool to know that moving was not a total disappointment I got to make a new friend."

He seemed a little taken back by my comment like he was offended by being my friend.

"That is if you want to be friends" I spat out stuttering over my words.

"No that would be nice living so far back here everyone knows everyone and if your me everyone stays away from you." He said. His parents looked a little sad at these words but didn't say anything or move towards him.

I looked up, yes up at him in confusion "I wonder why that is you seem really sweet to me" I said.

He opened his mouth and it looked like he was going to say something but his mother walked up and he snapped it shut, and stood up strait looking like someone had just stabbed him in the back.

"Max is it?" Mrs. Winchester asked, not even waiting for a reply continued talking "I'm sorry but I'm afraid we have to go, Zero has his piano lessons that he has to get back to don't you sweetie? Say bye to your friend"

"Yes mother of course." He replied "Bye Max it was nice to meet you."

"It was nice to meet you to Zero." I replied "I'll see you around right?"

But before he could reply his mother was dragging him down the house steps and around the corner so they could get to their house. Mr. Winchester was at least a little more considered and said bye to my mother and myself before grabbing her hand a giving it a light kiss and then disappearing around the corner and into the Winchester's house.

My mother walked up to me a little shaky on her legs like she had taken one to many shots and was going to have a really bad hang over tomorrow. "Well they where nice, but the wife was a little strange" she said to me looking down at her hand.

"Okay mom we just moved here please don't go and have an affair with any old random married man who kisses your hand." I said looking at her giving off a big sigh.

It took her a moment to notice what I said but then she replied a little flushed "I know that, he was just so . . ." she pondered as if looking for the right word.

"Creepy" I offered her.

"No he was sweet better then any man I met in the past." She said that as if realizing her mistake corrected herself quickly "not to say I didn't love your father I did but you know he's gone now and I think he would want me to move on.

"What now you can talk to the dead too?" I said rudely but seeing the look my mother gave me I had to say something nice "ya mother you're probably right he would want you to move on."

Being cheered up by those words my mother suggested "okay let's hurry unpacking so that we can go eat dinner together."

"Okay" I joyfully replied.

I bent down and picked up the boxes I had set on the door steps to take them inside but got a little curious so I decided to open them up and see what was inside. It was a good thing that I didn't set it right side down because inside was a bunch of cans of open paint.

_Who boxes up open paint _I thought the realizing the answer said "my mother."

"Yes what is it?" she asked turning around from the box she was trying to pick up.

"Oh sorry it's nothing" I said laughing I hadn't realize that I said that out loud.



"Mother this is one of the best dinners you have ever made." I said while munching down on my beef stew.

"Well I had some help." She said pouring me some more soup.

"Thanks, but I didn't do that much all I did was chop the veggies." I said.

"Well we have veggies chopped because of you if you weren't here this would be simple water, broth, and beef. How grouse is that?" she asked me.

I laughed "ya I guess that would be pretty grouse." I said.

I took my dishes over to the sink where my mother was washing the cooking pot. Since we just moved in we didn't have the dishwasher installed yet so we have to wash it all by hand. I put my bowl at the bottom of the sink and let the water fill it up even to the point where the bowl was over flowing with water. That's when my mother thought that she had to step in and turn off the water and clean it herself.

"Why don't you just go to your room and organize it a bit? Right now it's all just in boxes right?" she asked me obviously trying to get me away from the sink, so our water bill would not make us go broke.

"Are you sure? I can help you with the dishes if you want mom." I told her.

"Ya I'm sure go to your room get an idea for it and surprise me with it." She said "I'll be up after I'm done with the dishes and help you out."

"Okay" I said as I hurried towards the stairs that led to my room.

When I got to my room I figured out what my mother meant everything really was in boxes. Not even my bed was set up the only thing out of a box was some furniture my mother must have given me for the patio.

_She is always thinking about me_ I thought.

I looked around and found a path in the maze of boxes where I could take the stuff to the patio "Okay lets get started." I said to no one really in particular.

After about what seemed like forever of dragging the chairs to my patio along with the table, couch, and love seats. I decided to take a brake on the only freshly cleaned spot on my floor.

When I was sitting down I realized how much I needed the break because it hurt to even sit. Once I got on my back and was starring up at my ceiling I noticed something that made me love my room all the more. The ceiling was glowing someone had painted tons probably hundreds of tiny stars all across the roof and they touched down on the walls a little bit where there was a forest painted all across.

_Okay _I thought _I don't need a plan for my room it's already perfect._

I stared up at my newly transformed room and thought about why I didn't see this in the day light, and how much my mother would freak about it.

After a while I started to get a little tired so I allowed myself to fall asleep staring up at my own personal sky. There was no way I was going to get used to seeing this every night I don't think I would be able to sleep.

After an hour or so of sleeping I was awoken by a sound like one of those cheesy sword sound effects off of any action movies. It sounded like the swords where crashing and crashing again. I walked out to the patio and looked around but saw nothing. The noise came again stronger, louder, much closer this time, I strained my eyes trying to get a glimpse of what was making the noise.

A dog barked looking to the house next to his. I looked at where he was barking but I still saw nothing but heard a new sound. The dog's owner was awake and was going down the stairs to get to the dog's house leaving every light on as he went.

The back door smashed open but the dog did not acknowledge this at all and continued to bark, at the house. The owner shouted at the dog to be quite but when the dog did not stop barking so he walked back inside disappearing for a second then reappearing a second later with a light in hand.

_Okay now I can see what that noise is_ I thought.

The owner went to his dog looking around to see what he was barking at and that's when I saw them.

The two figures tall and slim danced in the light that emanated off of the house. Something shined, glittered it was a sword I saw; well I think that's what I saw.

It looked and sounded like a sword but there was something other worldly about it, but that's when I noticed what the figure was that held it, along as what the other one was.

"They're people." I concluded based on the shape of them.

They jumped off the roof landing on the ground no more then five feet away from the man and his dog, the dog turned immediately trying his hardest to get to them most likely because he wanted to attack.

The man did not seem to notice them, I didn't see how with all the noise they where making.

"How does he not see them?" I said thinking out loud.

Before I could say another word the two spilt off their assault on one another, one ran off into the woods in a split second, and the other one stood there for a minute facing my direction before running strait at me.

In a little under two seconds he had crossed seven lawns scaled over all their fences and had reached my patio he jumped up with such silence and grace that I was actually envious for a minute before I realized that he was probably here for a reason and decided to ask.

"What do you want, Mr. Night Crawler?" I asked him and if I was expecting a reply I was sadly disappointed, because all he did was stand there in silence.

After a minute of just sitting there in silence I said "bye" to him and walked for the door to my room. But before I could reach it he blocked my path. His arms out spread so it made it all but impossible to pass and still get to my door.

"You won't talk to me and you won't let me leave tell me what you want or I'll start screaming and I don't think you would want that." I told him with the straightest face I could conjure because actually his silence and grace was scaring me to death.

"I'm sorry I've just never seen one of you before." The clocked man finally said "you just intrigue me."

Okay not even Mrs. Winchester could compete with that even with her freaky act. "You've never seen what? You mean a girl? Because I hate to tell you but there are a lot of us out there." I said taking a step to sit on my couch.

He must have felt very much at home because he laid himself across one of the chairs, the one he chose happened to closest to the door so I knew I didn't have a chance of getting to it before he did.

"No, of course I've seen girls before I mean a mundane that can see my kind." he told me in his insane language that it seemed like only he could understand.

Even with all my sharp and catchy comebacks the only thing that I could make come out of my mouth in response to this was "huh?"



I just stood there looking at him. "Honestly what? A mundane what's a mundane?" I asked him.

He just sort of stood there starring at me like I was the one who had gone insane "don't tell me you where never even taught that. Everyone learns that at school." He said obviously trying his hardest not to laugh.

"I don't know what school you went to" I told him "but they never taught that at mine."

He smiled at my remark and for the first time in the twelve minutes that I have known him, I really looked at him. His hair fell in long brown chunks that seemed to play gracefully with his neck; an almost silvery hood of a cloak covered his head down to his eyes and fell gently over his shoulders, and ended ripped and ragged just above his knees. It seemed to almost shimmer under the light of the moon. His pants and shirt where made out of this same elusive material and fit to all the curves of his body.

He noticed my silence and took it upon himself to ask me "What? Why are you staring at me?"

"Nothing, it's just, well I don't really know." I said realizing how stupid that sounded tried to correct myself "well what I actually mean is what are you doing on my deck, what where you doing a minute ago, and who was that that you where with?"

"Woo there one question at a time" he said putting his hands out in front as if to stop me "first off though the question is not who was there with me but what was there with me."

"What?" I asked.

"Yes what, you see mundane the creature I was with was known as a Ma –." I started to say but was cut off by my mother.

"Hunny who you talking to?" she asked "Are you on the phone?"

"Ya sorry mom I just missed Carly so I had to call her, I'll be off in a minute." I lied to her.

"Take your time." She replied "but do you want me to come in and help you set up your room?"

Now here is one thing you need to know about my mother. When she asks a question it's not really a question, or on that mater even a suggestion but she is telling you what she is going to do. So when she said those words fear shot through me. My unexpected visitor must have noticed this fact about my mother too because he spun on the spot and ran strait off my patio and into the night only saying "bye see you later."

I ran to the end of my patio. "What you're going to come back?" I asked half between a whisper and a shout.

But before he could reply, if he was going to my mother walked through my bedroom door "So want that help?" she asked.

"Sure why not." I replied it was not like my visitor was coming back anytime soon.


End file.
